Lautaro Martinez completed a rapid Inter counter-attack from a wasted Roma corner to secure the victory at the Stadio Olimpico, despite losing two stars to injury in the first half-hour.
The Giallorossi had Paulo Dybala back in the starting XI after a month out and Artem Dovbyk shook off a knee issue, but Stephan El Shaarawy and Alexis Saelemaekers were injured. Piotr Zielinski, Kristjan Asllani and Tajon Buchanan didn’t make the trip, though Nicolò Barella returned from a muscular injury.
See how the game unfolded on the Liveblog.
Marcus Thuram stung Mile Svilar’s gloves after a well-worked team move, but Yann Sommer was very fortunate to get away with a howler when Lorenzo Pellegrini’s cross-shot bounced off his gloves and onto the upright.
Inter lost Hakan Calhanoglu to a left thigh issue and moments later Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s powerful effort dipped over Svilar to thump the top of the crossbar.
Simone Inzaghi was again forced to draw from the bench when Francesco Acerbi also limped off with a muscular problem, replaced by Stefan de Vrij.
Thuram had timid red card appeals when he went down just outside the area in a sandwich between Evan N’Dicka and Bryan Cristante.
Lorenzo Pellegrini saw his strike sting Sommer’s gloves from distance on the Dybala through ball, but Inter broke the deadlock on the hour mark.
It was a Roma corner punched away by Sommer when Nicola Zalewski stumbled, allowing Frattesi to go on the counter until his pull back was also not properly intercepted by Zeki Celik, so Lautaro Martinez fired in from 16 yards. It was his 133rd goal for Inter in all competition, equalling the club record set by Istvan Nyers for a foreign player.
It was almost 2-0 moments later, as Thuram sprung the offside trap on the Frattesi through ball and dinked it over Svilar, but Celik made a decisive sliding block to stop the Federico Dimarco tap-in.
Benjamin Pavard threw himself in the way of Dybala’s effort to deflect it over and on the resulting corner Dovbyk’s header was wide of the near post.
Svilar got down for a one-handed save on the Denzel Dumfries angled drive, then was again alert after Mario Hermoso let a cross through.
With the last kick of the game, Sommer got down to parry a Matias Soule’ snapshot.
Roma 0-1 Inter
Lautaro Martinez 60 (I)
Player statistic
| 48' |  |
Nicolò Barella | ||
| Bryan Cristante | |
49' | ||
| 60' |  |
Lautaro Martínez | ||
| Niccolò Pisilli | |
62' | ||
| 68' | |
Matteo Darmian | ||
| 78' | |
Joaquín Correa |
Match statistic
Svilar and Ndi*ka were outstanding.
Well deserved win! Roma are like a bunch of headless chickens.